Day 137/365

I love it when friends ask me to do their Graduation photos! I don't do the typical posing in front of a marble effect backdrop, or a fake library (I know not all studio photos are like that, I joke), I do my usual out on location, natural light, have a good laugh, photos :) I took some more serious ones too! And some more silly ones, but they were all Jamie's doing...he's rather regretful knowing I managed to capture those moments on camera. Haha. Congratulations, Jamie! All the best with your new job :)

Day 136/365

I took one photo of Elsie in the bath yesterday...I didn't need to take any more. I got myself in to position, called her name and snapped this the moment she looked up. Look at those wee teeth!

I took a similar photo of Fin last year...I just love the composition and the lines in the tiles. And the adorable subjects!

Day 135/365

We went on a few adventures on Monday; off to Duthie Park in the morning, for ice-cream (Granny's idea, of course) and fun at the play park, then we headed out of town to Drum Garden Centre for lunch (and a brief nap in the car), and then round the corner to Drum Castle to check out the new play park there. At first I didn't quite get why they'd built a drum kit out of tree trunks...

Day 134/365

I drove Sarah and Dave to the airport at 0815 on Sunday morning, for their London Adventure, without the kiddies, and when I returned Elsie was pottering around in the kitchen with Mum, but there was no sign, or noise, of Fin. I headed upstairs, on the hunt, and found him lying back on my bed, with my iPad on his belly, and this look of concentration on his face. The little madame followed me upstairs, and plonked herself down beside him to have a look, then sat back and clapped when Fin got something right on the game he was playing. They're a couple of cuties. Their ability to work iPads and iPhones is a bit ridiculous.

Day 133/365

Just a wee snap of a random flower from our back garden...apologies for not having a clue what the name is.

Day 132/365

I am not ashamed to say that I absolutely loved the first How to Train Your Dragon movie when it first came out...and I've just checked when that was, and apparently it was 2010...4 years ago?! Where has the time gone?! Anyway, I was very excited to go see the second movie on Thursday night. With sequels there is a great risk of it being a total flop, and in the first 20 minutes or so I was worried that's where this was going, but I'm very pleased to say that Rachael and I, once again, laughed like children (louder than children in fact...we were often the only ones laughing...), and loved this one just as much. Not even the child throwing up in his popcorn bag in the row behind us could put us off!

I want a Toothless.

Day 131/365

On the way home from a lovely evening catching up with a friend I decided to chase the sunset through the countryside, and the timing was perfect as the sun disappeared down behind the hill just as I started walking back to the car :) Hooray! I think you can tell I love barley fields...this is probably the 4th photo I've uploaded with a barley field in the last 2 weeks. They're just so yummy!

Day 130/365

TkMaxx? Yeah, sure! Beautiful new shoes for a fiver? Don't mind if I do! Half a size too big? Who cares! I'll just get some cute socks to go along with them :)

Day 129/365

I headed out to Crathes Castle this evening and spotted this Celeb out with her absolutely adorable little girl. She even gave me a wave, she's clearly not fazed by the camera! Haha. Just kidding, that's my sister and my niece, of course. I nipped out to Crathes to join them for a lovely stroll around the gardens in the sunshine. Gotta make the most of this lovely summer weather when it comes!

Day 128/365

With Dave and Fin up north in Lybster, and Mumsy on holiday with her sister for a week, it was just Sarah, Elsie and myself at the house for Sunday lunch, and what a lunch it was (thanks to Sarah creating an absolute feast before I was even home from Church)! We watched the tennis/napped and Elsie had a great time being the only child! She picked up my phone at one point and pushed the button, to reveal a photo of Matthew and I as my wallpaper, and got a little excited..."Affoo!...Mummy...*looks at Sarah and points to screen* Affoo!...Affoo...Neena *points to screen*...Affoo!" Haha. She's a cutie! She's not seen him for 3 weeks, but she couldn't forget her buddy!

Day 127/365

Paul and Claire brought these scrabble pieces along on their Engagement Shoot to try out this fun ring shot, and we came across the perfect piece of drift wood on the beach at Dunnotar to lay them out on :)

Day 126/365

 Baking with kids is so much fun! After meeting with one of my 2014 Couples for a cuppa to chat over wedding plans this morning, I picked up Megan and we headed out to Anne's for lunch. I finished up my meeting a little earlier than scheduled so we surprised Anne at the door half an hour early, before she'd had the chance to make scones, so we had the pleasure of watching her and Luke create these delicious treats. It was such a hoot! Flour went everywhere, the mix got mixed a little too much, and the scones were cut with the ever so indelicate hands of a child...but they turned out pretty well, huh! And I can confirm they tasted pretty good too :) Thanks for a lovely afternoon, Anne, and Luke!

Sorry you got caught in the wide angle distortion zone, Megan!

Day 125/365

Tomorrow is your last chance to head on down to Tesco at Woodend, or Danestone, and donate some food to the Trussell Trust Foodbank! Just pick up a couple extra items during your shop, then drop them off at the stand on your way out (once you've paid for them of course!). All donations go to local families who are going through a difficult time and can't afford to buy food, so it's a fantastic cause to donate to. Check out the link for more details :)

Day 124/365

Before the shoot Matty was quite nervous about having his photo taken...look at him now! I love capturing beautiful moments like this :)

Day 123/365

Also not a bad view...this was taken back in Westhill, on a back road behind Loch Skene in the late hours of the evening.

Day 122/365

Not too bad a view really...This was taken from the upstairs of Matthew's home in Inverness.

Day 121/365

This guy's voice, guitar playing, and message, will dig deep in to your heart and soul when you hear him, which Matthew and I, along with a very large group of young people from Inverness and Highlands, had the ginormous pleasure of doing on Sunday night. He has an incredible story, which leads to discovering God's saving grace, and he uses his beautiful voice, and seriously impressive guitar skills, to spread the good news about Jesus. His name is Steph Macleod, and if you haven't listened to his music before now, today you must!

Day 120/365

On Saturday night we had the huge pleasure of attending Charles' Mum's Wedding Reception :) Charles is Matthew's flatmate, and very good friend from school, and his relationship with his mother is just incredibly sweet to watch! This was them spotting me as they headed off the dance floor, after some pretty impressive dancing.

Day 119/365

Matthew had the day off on Friday which meant we could go on an adventure :) I wanted to find some waterfalls, so we headed off down Loch Ness, failed to find the first waterfall, stopped off at the Invermoriston Footprints, and then stopped in Fort Augustus for a lovely wee stroll, and an energy boost from a bowl of soup, and some cake. Matthew had soup, I had cake. Haha.

Those pontoons are great fun to walk along when the water's choppy, a bit like being back on the ship when we were in particularly bad water.

We then drove back up the south side of Loch Ness, which was a first for us both. It's very much like driving through the Isle of Lewis; single track roads, and beautiful views :)

Day 118/365

I'm never going to get away from this horrible drink...

Day 117/365

Where there is fire, men will gather. Where there is food, Donald Smith will gather.

I couldn't get any closer, as I didn't have my zoom lens, and they scattered whenever I got close...it's not easy to hide my camera!

Day 116/365

Soooo...this is embarrassing...Emma messaged me on Tuesday morning to ask if I fancied lunch in town with herself and Megan. Why yes, yes I did! She picked me up, we decided to head to Union Square, and I mentioned we'd been to Handmade Burger Co. for dinner the night before, and how amazingly delicious it is! So, of course, Emma wanted to go there! Haha. Two trips to Handmade Burger Co. in less than 24 hours...impressive! And to make matters worse, I was going round to a friend's in the evening for pizza takeaway! #fatty

Because of this I decided to do day 1 of the 'Couch to 5k' challenge...we won't say any more about that!

Day 115/365

Waaaaay! It's Ali Walker's Birthday!!

So, we all headed out for dinner, as we do every Monday night...or so Ali thought! No, no, this was all for him! We all enjoyed an absolute feast at Handmade Burger Co. and then watched Ali continue to feast, on a scrumptious looking ice-cream sundae, all by himself. Haha. Hope you had a good night, Ali! Same time next year, yeah?

Day 114/365

I got some new nautical cushions :) I'm starting a collection! Now I just need a beautiful beach hut to put them in...or perhaps I'll just paint over my wallpaper with big nautical stripes.

Day 113/365

LOVE.

I looked after this little munchkin and his adorable little sister for the morning, whilst their parents finished off the shed on their allotment. We had a lot of fun at the park, and then at the cake shop, and then at the allotment for a little bit to see how Mummy and Daddy were getting on. 

After lunch Sarah and I went out on an adventure with the kiddies! I was keen to see a waterfall, as always, so we headed west to Burn O' Vat, a waterfall you need to hop over some stepping stones, through a wee cave tunnel, in to a 'water gouged bowl' to see. So exciting! We took the kids through the woods to the cave, hopped over the stones, and expected Fin to splash straight through the little stream that goes across the middle, but he was hesitant to get his feet wet! Elsie, however, waddled straight on in, haha, picking up handfuls of tiny, sandy, stones. I picked Fin up and ran through the water in my wellies, we climbed the rocks, and took some photos at the waterfall, and then Fin ran out...splashing through the water, so we thought it must be time to go, of course. We followed him out, removed wet shoes, and then he decided he wanted to go back in! So, Mummy waited outside with Elsie, while Fin and I hopped our way back across the stepping stones...and discovered we were being followed by a small group of men...wearing business suits...you know, just on a wee break from the office, in a forest...climbing through a cave, to see a waterfall...in their suits. So, of course I took a photo of them on one of their phones! 

It was just after that that I snapped the above photo of Finny...which I love! His natural pose, holding up his soaking wet joggers, so they don't get wet, and the light coming down in to the cave...oooh, it's lovely!

Day 112/365

We had a few of the Stewart's, and the Morrison's, over for dinner tonight, and Sarah made me a birthday cake! Isn't it beautiful?! Mmmmm. We sure do love cake! And I sure do love this photo :) Even with the nose scrunch Miss Piggy look.

Day 111/365

I confess I didn't actually finish off the journal on the flight home...I did it a few days after we got home! I guess I was in denial, and didn't really want to believe it was over. Despite quite clearly no longer being in Alaska!

Day 110/365

Remember that bit of wood I was given in Ketchikan, Alaska? And that giant cup I got from Starbucks in Vancouver International Airport? Well...here here they are folks! In all their glory. Haha. Life's clearly a bit slow on the banter side once you come home from such an amazing holiday! And I do believe I slept in until 1pm this day, so I was struggling with the jet lag.

Day 109/365

James and Rachael are getting married in September, later this year, over in Cults. As much as I love to travel, it's really exciting having a few more local weddings this year!

We met out at Crathes Castle for their engagement shoot, and then moved on to Drum Castle to finish off. I love meeting my couples for an engagement shoot as not everyone is comfortable in front of a camera, so it really relaxes them, and stops them from worrying about it on their Wedding Day! Not to mention the beautiful photos we create :)

Their reception is at Maryculter House Hotel, which I know very well as my family often get together there each Christmas for a delicious meal, but the last wedding I was at there was my sister's, seven years ago, before I began this exciting journey of wedding photography! So I'm very excited to go back this year and capture the beautiful moments of James and Rachael's wedding :)

Day 108/365

It was very weird being alone all day today...and as cheesy as it is to say, I was majorly missing this guy! So because he wasn't heading back to Inverness until Tuesday, he suggested we go out for dinner...despite suffering hugely from jetlag. Here he is having his horrible Bloody Mary cocktail, as a way of reminiscing about the holiday, remembering that drink he had which went a whole horrible step further, with the Clamato juice. Bleugh.

Day 107/365

We are now back on UK time, 8 hours ahead again, and despite not really sleeping, it is in fact a new day, so I snapped this photo of us on our final flight from Heathrow to Aberdeen. Gotta love fake sleeping! Well, Matthew was actually trying.

Mum was waiting for us at the airport, with an adorable little companion, in the form of my nephew Finlay. It was great to see them, and especially get such an excited response and a run up hug from Finny when he saw me :) Maggie was very excited to be meeting him after all the times I've spoken about him and all the photos I've shown her over this past year. He sure is adorable!

There's not much else to say other than we were all exhausted, and kept feeling like we were swaying, like we were still on the ship. We all got our bags and said our sad farewells, ready to get back to normal life in our different cities :(

Day 106/365 - Fly Away Home

We woke at 7am today, in plenty time to get breakfast one last time at the Lido, and be ready to be called off the ship at 9:30. Booooooo.

The weather in Vancouver reflected our mood; damp, grey and foggy. We got ourselves through customs, booked our cases in to the lockers at the terminal so we didn't have to lug them around, then headed out on to the streets of Vancouver one last time.

Maggie had her cute rain jacket on, with the hood up and the string pulled tight so it looked like she was wearing a wetsuit head cover. Very funny. Matthew thought she looked like a Hobbit...I didn't really see where he was coming from. We found a Starbucks, woohoo! And it had Wifi...WOOHOO! Queue the overload of Facebook updates and photos and major antisocial behaviour from the majority of the group.

Having bought a Deadliest Catch tshirt in Ketchikan, and seen the latest episodes on the TV on the ship that morning as we waited to get off, Matthew went on the Youtube hunt for the other episodes he'd missed, and watched them while Maggie, Mary and myself headed up to the Pacific Something shopping centre that we'd been in last week.

I'm completely forgetting to mention the excitement of seeing police cars and bikes on one of the streets across from Starbucks, along with dump trucks dumping snow on the street, and trees and rocks lining the sides too. I assumed they were filming something, and I was correct. It was an advert for JEEP. How exciting! So as we drank our beverages there was snow blowing on the street outside. Amazing. On the way back to the terminal we walked down the street, as it wasn't blocked off for pedestrians, and saw a fake stream flowing down the street. It was very cool. We hung about on the corner at the bottom for a while, hearing the British director make his commands, and then the JEEP driving along one street and turn up on to the snowy street, over a big snow pile, with camera gear strapped over the roof and sides. Very exciting! Hopefully we'll see it online sometime later in the year.

We waited at the terminal for our taxi to arrive. Amazed to see it pretty much empty, at 3:30pm, a far different view from what we experienced last Saturday, boarding the ship. There were only two ships boarding today and apparently the problem last week was the number of International people boarding. Yay.When our taxi arrived we were all rather shocked, and amused. The voucher had said limousine on it, but we just assumed that was their word for a booked taxi...Nooooope! A stretch Hummer pulled up in the terminal car park. Which is just as well as I don't know how 6 of us, plus our huge luggage cases, would have fit in a normal taxi. Matthew cringed. The ladies skipped. So, we rode to the airport in style :) Hilarious. It had leopard print carpets. Hilarious. It matched my carry on bag. Hilarious. I feel asleep in a Hummer. Hilarious. Okay, enough of that.

Vancouver airport is really cool, it has a big fish tank in a wall with a totem pole design above it, and a stream flowing down to it (see above) with little walkways over it. I loved it! We got some drinks and snacks at Starbucks, and I bought a ginormous plastic Starbucks cup. Amazing. Then Matthew and I watched an episode of Deadliest Catch on his phone...I only last about 20 minutes and ended up napping on the airport seats for about 45 minutes. Woo!

Calum wondered off when we first arrived, to check out the fancy lounge, for people with fancy flying cards. Unfortunately he's not allowed to take 5 guests in to these places, so instead he went back and forth a few times bringing us paninis on napkins to scoff. Quite amusing.

I'm on the final page of my journal now so I'll try to be brief (ha!) about our flights home. Our flight from Vancouver was delayed by about 40 minutes, and when we eventually got on, to our Boeing 747, which Matthew was very excited about, it turned out to be not as good as anticipated. We had less room than we had coming over. Matthew was in the middle of our 3 seats beside the window, so he could only stretch his legs under the seat. Aunty Mary was in the seat in front of him and 2 hours in to the flight she put her chair back and the TV was probably half a foot from his face...probably less! I laughed.

Okay, I better round up here. I can't believe the holiday is over. It's been an incredible two weeks and I'm so massively grateful to have been invited to go with Matthew and his family on this trip of a lifetime, it's been unbelievably amazing!

Day 105/365 - The Inside Passage, back to Vancouver. Also my birthday!

Meet our wonderful waiters, Endra and Zaiful :)

It's my birthday! I'm 25! Yay!!

We had a very lazy, slightly depressed #itstheendoftheholiday kind of day, walking around, eating burgers, sitting outside on the lido deck in the sun, and slightly chilly breeze, playing table tennis, and then I had 15 minutes in the hot tub by the pool before getting showered and ready for dinner. 

I forgot to mention that the waiters sang for us on Wednesday. They appeared with birthday cake and put it down in front of Maggie saying it was her birthday. We were all very confused, and they told them it wasn't Maggie's birthday, but it was mine on Friday. So they gave me the cake, and a whole group of waters appeared and started singing, what we assume was 'Happy Birthday' in Indonesian, and clanging spoons against dish lids, and plates. It was amazing! I realised the next day that it was actually meant for Maggie as her birthday is the 11th of July, and it was the 11th of June so they just like to sing to guests when their birthday is coming up soon!

So they sang for me again at dinner tonight! And we got more cake, yay!! We got photos of our waiters with each of us, and enjoyed our last night with the fantastic view, before saying our final farewell's to Zaiful and Endra :(

Day 104/365 - Ketchikan...where it rains 300 days a year, but not today!

I've just looked at the front page to see the questions you've (Sarah) asked me, to see if I've answered them at all, and the first one I saw was 'Did you say hello to the Captain?' Well...how have I not mentioned THAT story? Our Cabins are on deck 8, at the front of the ship, which is right behind the bridge, and the rooms for a few important people. So when we were walking to one of our rooms one day the Captain was going in to the bridge area through the door directly opposite our rooms. He spotted me coming along the corridor and said "Good morning", and I said "...Hiiii..." in a ridiculous #ohmygoodnessitsthecaptain girly kind of voice and smiled. I felt like an idiot when I went in to the room and told the others. Matthew found this ridiculous and hilarious. Then, later in the afternoon, when we were heading out of one of the rooms, I was ahead of Matthew along the corridor and I heard a door open so turned, and there he was again, our beloved Captain, so I started to laugh (not much better than my morning response) and the Captain said "What?" as he walked towards me, so I said I'd been thinking about my inappropriate greeting and I should have said "Good morning, Captain."...he was like "Oh, no, no. It's good to see you...you obviously crazy young girl(!!)". Okay, he didn't actually say that last part, but Matthew and I are pretty sure he was thinking it! We got a wave from him a couple times when we saw him on the view point on the bridge from the balcony, so really I think he loves me! *hahahaha*

But enough about that. Matthew and Calum went on a King Salmon Fishing trip in Ketchikan today, and Maggie, Sandra, Mary and myself went on tour to a Native Alaskan village and a lumberjack show (see above)...as you do. Both were very good! At the native village they did a native dance for us, told us some words in Tlingit, and told us about their totem poles, and how they hand carve all their clan houses, etc. It was great. At the lumberjack show I got given a piece of wood they had sawn off during the competition "between America and Canada" when Canada won a point, as I was on their side of the audience. It's a fair chunk of wood, so I felt a bit ridiculous taking it back to the ship with us, but then I got it signed, so I felt I couldn't just leave this piece of memorabilia in Alaska!

Unfortunately the boys didn't catch, or even get a bite of, anything on their fishing trip, so they were hugely disappointed. It was a beautiful day to be out on the water, at least, if it had been raining, in this place that gets rain 300 days of the year, then they would've been miserable. But instead they came back tanned!

We saw our formal night photos after dinner, and I was much happier with them this time round :) Wayhay! So I got a couple copies of them. They were all lovely; no cringe worth poses or bad focusing, yay!

Day 103/365 - Glacier Bay!

Today was a sea day, travelling further north from Skagway to Glacier Bay. So named because it used to be a glacier, and now it just has various smaller (but still huge!) glaciers feeding in to it.

They opened up the bow of the ship so we could go out for a better view of the bay and the glaciers, and served us pea soup to warm us up. Very yummy!

We got up a lot closer to the glacier you see above than the image shows (it's taller than the ship!), but Maggie and I went for a pedicure (once again, a new experience for me!) at 11 so we viewed it from the Spa window while the ship was beside it. I snapped a photo on my phone through the window, and then when we were finished I speed walked to the back of the ship to snap this photo as we sailed away. Can you spot the smaller tour boat in the photo?

It's very hard to find your travelling companions on a cruise ship when you've not made plans to meet at a certain place. I found Calum on the top deck, enjoying the sunshine, and then Maggie found us a little while later, but none of us had any idea where Matthew was! I thought about going to find him, but if he was walking around too we could have been constantly just missing each other, it's a big area to cover! Just as I was about to get up, he appeared, wayhay! #cruiseshipproblems #nexttimewewillgetwalkietalkies

Matthew and I had a game of table tennis after lunch, after Matthew went down to Reception on deck 1 to get the bats and balls, as they weren't there for some reason...which we found out when 'Show Host Joel' appeared and informed us that Glacier Bay is protected water and all sports are banned in the bay...in case the table tennis ball smashes the Lido windows, lands in the water, and gets stuck in a whales blow hole. Matthew found this ridiculous, but rules are rules! I'd rather not be fined £100,000 if the Rangers who were on board for the day spotted us doing it.

The Captain had told us there was a possibility of seeing whales around 3pm, when we were heading back out of the bay, and he was right! We didn't see any leaps into the air but we saw A LOT of fins bobbing up from the waves, and some tails flapping up. I didn't cry this time, I was wishing I could get in the water with them to see them properly, although the water probably wasn't clear enough for that...or warm enough!

Today was definitely a scenic tour day, with lots of see on either side of the ship. We saw a lot of sea otters (Matthew's new favourite animal), chilling on their back's, just bobbing along. Apparently when they find a mate and they're chilling in the water like that, letting the tide/current take them wherever, they hold hands so they don't drift apart. How cute is that?!

Tonight was the night of our second, and final, formal night, the night for my crazy, orange, maxi dress to make it's debut! Maggie made an appointment to have her hair put up, but there was only a 30 minute slot left for the day, so I wasn't able to get an appointment. I was quite alright about that, thinking I would just go for my standard messy bouffant and bun. It worked! And despite the MAJOR lack of effort from basically everyone else on the ship, rather than feel awkward and overdressed, I LOVED wearing my beautiful, floor length, with train, halter neck, with sash, gown (bought from TkMaxx)! And I got quite a few compliments from ladies passing by.

We attempted formal photos again, including some in front of the hideous marble type effect backdrop, and we were pleased with the posing of these ones so look forward to seeing them and really hope they're in focus *I didn't mention before that we weren't pleased with the quality of our first lot of formal photos, but I don't want to go on about that. Matthew bought one that was actually in focus, but I don't like the way I was asked to position my legs, so I only took the little copies from it, ha.*

The show in the theatre was a comedian called Brian Bradley, from America, and he was absolutely hilarious! He had a pan for his set, obviously, but it was all improve so it was very impressive! I imagine Matthew will be looking him up on Youtube (have you done that yet, dear?), when we're back to civilisation, because he loved it! We were all laughing our heads off actually.

All in all, another fabulous day on the Pacific Ocean :)

Day 102/365 - Skagway

Oh boy, was it hard to pick a photo for today!

Well...today was quite a day! Full of surprises...Calum, by chance, managed to book himself on to a helicopter (or heileacoptair if you fancy the Gaelic) ride up to a glacier, despite hearing they had all been booked up. It was something he really wanted to do, so we were chuffed he'd found out there was a space available.

He headed off at 10am and returned 2 hours later, in time to have lunch and head out with Maggie, Matthew and myself on the 'City Tour' of Skagway (just as exhilarating as a helicopter ride!), and he was absolutely buzzing! Saying we should all do it, we wouldn't get another chance like this again and he'd taken a business card so he could book us on directly, without going through the ship excursions, to the 3:35pm flight as they had spaces(!)...Maggie said no straight away, Matthew was majorly hesitant, and I was super keen. So, once Matthew manned up, Calum phoned to book us on...Aaagh!!

But before the excitement of the helicopter, we had our tour of Skagway to go on! Skagway has a grand total of 300 people, who only work 5 months of the year, when the cruise ships come in to dock (there were 3 in at the same time as us, but they have made enough dock space for 6 at once), and the other 7 months they wrap up warm and have parties at each other's houses, or go to the community centre for various activities. Don't let me forget to mention the horrible detail that they only get 20 minutes of sunshine at the end of December...unless our guide was messing with us...according to Google they get around 6 hours of DAYLIGHT, but it's in a Valley between big mountains, so perhaps it does only get 6 minutes of direct sunlight. Bleugh.

Moving on from that, a looooong time ago there was a glacier in the valley that Skagway sits in now, which compressed the land and pushed it down quite a bit, so now that the glacier's gone the ground is slowly rising again #weird. On the tour they told us about a man called 'Soapy Smith' who won the trust of the whole town and they put him in charge, when actually he was a total scam artist, stealing their money. So eventually people realised that he needed to be stopped, which led to a gun fight and Soapy Smith being shot in the heart, dying instantly. This took place on a dock, over the water...today there is a plaque marking the spot of the incident, but it is now 4 or 5 blocks away from the shoreline, because the ground is rising #superweird. We also found out that to drive to the nearest village, 16 miles away, you have to travel over 300 miles. Roughly 100 miles north, 100 miles west, and then 100 miles south...mental! So instead people take the ferry. Did I mention that you can't drive to Juneau? You have to arrive by either plane or boat...and that's their Capital City! Incredible. They have roads, but they only go so far. 

So, anyway, we thoroughly enjoyed our tour of the 'city' of Skagway in our funky old bus from the 1920's, with our dressed up tour guide lady, while the sun was shining! And the weather being so good made me even more excited for our helicopter ride, so let's talk about that, shall we?

We all headed along to the flight centre, at the harbour, and Matthew and I had our safety briefing, got kitted out in life vests and overshoes (very attractive things), and when our helicopter arrived Matthew and I got put in the front seats!! Woohoo! The flight up to the glacier took about 20 minutes, and because the weather had cleared up a bit more since Calum's trip we were able to go a different route from his group, which took us over some beautiful wee lakes, and a couple smaller glaciers. I love helicopter flights!! 

Once we landed on Meade Glacier a guide walked us around to see a few cool things. He informed us that we were standing above 800ft of ice, and that the glacier is currently 15 miles long, but it's receding all the time. You can see on the hills on either side where it used to be a few hundred years ago; a couple hundred feet higher. It recedes an incredible amount each week! There are boulders of various sizes, some tiny, some ginormous, just chillin' on the river of ice, because they were knocked off the sides of the mountains as the glacier pushed past it. Crazy. And there are a few massive holes or cracks which go down very deep in to the glacier, so when the guide was showing them to us he held on to our life vests to make sure we didn't fall in as we lent forward to get a better look. As you looked down in to the gap you could see how blue the ice looked. Beautiful! I'm chuffed to have found a Pandora charm the same colour to remember it by. There were streams of glacier water flowing down the glacier which created cracks, and then air pockets which are very dangerous, so you need to be careful when you're walking and keep an eye out in case you stood on softer ground above an air pocket, and fell down in to a crevasse. It was all so fascinating and exciting!

I think that's enough journal extract for today...the rest of it is just more helicopter banter, and me having 2 puddings at dinner time. No need to go in to detail about that!

Day 101/365 - Juneau

Matthew and I went kayaking this afternoon near Mendenhall Glacier (see above middle right of image) in a bay off the Pacific Ocean, with about 23 other people, from our ship and the 3 others also docked in Juneau for the day. It was amazing! We didn't see any whales, but we saw about a dozen seals and a couple of eagles (see middle of image...look closely...closer...yeup...I should've brought my 70-200 lens). Did you know they eat dogs? And cats? And sometimes attempt to kidnap toddlers? And because they're endangered you coud be arrested for even throwing a stone at them. CreyC.
Speaking of whales *OH NO, AM I REALLY GONNA SHARE THIS PART?!**...this morning at breakfast Calum just happened to spot a whale fin hitting the water about a mile, or less, from the ship, and then the spray from the blow hole, so we all looked over, keen to see it surface again...It sprayed from its blow hole again, and I realised that my eyes were welling up, with tears...I was actually starting to cry at the excitement of seeing a whale, far off in the distance. Oh boy...Matthew found it hilarious, everyone else just couldn't believe it.

Day 100/365 - The Inside Passage, Scenic Cruising

*Today's picture shows you just how close our rooms were to the bridge. Eek! Hilarious story about me and the Captain coming up later this week, so keep reading!*

We had a very lazy day today, staying in our beds until around 10am, almost/basically missed breakfast at the buffet upstairs, which finished at 11am (but opened again at half 11 for lunch so it wouldn't have been a huge disaster. Good story).
Matthew and I then explored the ship a bit, finding the basketball/volleyball court on the very top of the ship, and shooting some hoops, then I dipped my hand in the outdoor pool and discovered it's heated so fancied a dip, despite the chilly weather (this never happened...#regrettingit).
*I cut the journal short at this point as the ship was quite rocky and I was beginning to feel a little nauseous.*
It is morning now and we are no longer rocking, yay! After lunch the boys, or should I say Men, headed through to take part in the table tennis competition. When we joined them a little while later we arrived in time to witness Matthew beat his Dad for only the second time EVER. Calum's excuse is that he didn't have his bat and wasn't able to do his trick shots with the ship bats, but everyone was in the same boat...pardon the pun! Matthew went on to come 2nd in the whole competition (of which there was no prize), being beaten by a skilled Asian gentleman. He's hoping to beat him another day.
I couldn't resist the pool any longer so Matthew and I got our stuff and headed to the indoor pool (cooler water, but by this point it was pretty rainy outside and Matthew thought people would think we were weird for going in the outdoor pool...maybe one day (again, this never happened...#regretting it!)). Matthew was flapping like a child when he first went in the water, because it was a bit cold. I laughed. We did a few lengths (not a huge distance as the pool is rather small) and then jumped in the jacuzzi...bubbles! With floor to ceiling windows lining the sides of the pool deck, and a clear removable roof, we were able to sit and watch the Canadian island pass by us, and listen to the rain on the roof. Amazing!
Tonight was our first formal night, and Maggie booked me in to get my hair put in an 'Updo', a new experience for me...and the results were a new experience for me too (including a flipped fringe and parting)! But it looked lovely! And after my appointment I had 20 minutes to change in to my dress, and make my face look a bit more glam (but there's only so much I can do there, with my limited range of make up that I don't really know what to do with), before heading off to get formal photos done...which was a major #LOL.
There were a few areas of the ship you could get photos done, either with a hideous backdrop, a green screen so they could put glaciers behind you, or different parts of the Atrium (staircase in the middle of the ship. Not quite like the Titanic, but it has a cool seahorse hanging from the top so I like it!). We got a few shots on the top level of the Atrium, on deck 3, where the seahorse is...but we blocked him sadly, in our various couples. Matthew wanted some photos at the bottom of the stairs too so we headed down to deck 1 where there was another photographer...and this is where the 'lol' comes in. The photographer was getting us to stand in some majorly cheesy positions, something I wouldn't dare ask a couple to do *Although have since I got back just for the comedy factor*; I had to stand with my back to Matthew's chest, as we clasped hands around my waist, and I put my left hand up behind me on to his cheek, and snuggled my face up to the other side of his face...#totesaunaturale #toteshilarious